Tag: wechat

Tesla is on pace to begin production at its factory in China in the second half of next year, the Shanghai government said Wednesday. Land leveling is basically complete and construction is about to begin, with the factory expected to be put partially into operation in the second half of 2019, according to an official WeChat post from the government. The article described a visit by Shanghai Mayor Ying Yong and Vice Mayor Wu Qing. In mid-October, Tesla officially acquired an 864,885-square meter

Tesla is on pace to begin production at its factory in China in the second half of next year, the Shanghai government said Wednesday.

Land leveling is basically complete and construction is about to begin, with the factory expected to be put partially into operation in the second half of 2019, according to an official WeChat post from the government. The article described a visit by Shanghai Mayor Ying Yong and Vice Mayor Wu Qing.

Tesla did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

In mid-October, Tesla officially acquired an 864,885-square meter plot in Shanghai’s Lingang area for the electric car maker’s first factory outside the U.S.

Elon Musk’s company has also launched an official WeChat account for hiring locals.

Producing in China, the world’s largest market for electric vehicles, would allow Tesla to reduce costs significantly. The company has said it is operating at a 55 percent to 60 percent cost disadvantage with a domestic peer due to ocean transport costs and tariffs.

TD Ameritrade is partnering with Tencent as the U.S. brokerage firm looks to tap the massive user base of the Chinese technology company’s WeChat messaging app. The move doesn’t get TD Ameritrade into mainland China yet, but would allow U.S. users to use the portal to check market data and other features. The bulk of WeChat’s users are in mainland China and TD Ameritrade would likely need to work to generate awareness of the mini program for U.S. users. The news followed an announcement a few da

TD Ameritrade is partnering with Tencent as the U.S. brokerage firm looks to tap the massive user base of the Chinese technology company’s WeChat messaging app.

The online brokerage announced Monday it’s opening a portal on WeChat for U.S. users, following a similar launch in August for Hong Kong users. The move doesn’t get TD Ameritrade into mainland China yet, but would allow U.S. users to use the portal to check market data and other features. It gives the company a first-mover advantage in being present on the most popular social messaging app in China, amid a steady push of foreign financial firms into the world’s second-largest economy.

“For greater Asia, China, there is obviously a large number of customers here who are interested in investing in U.S. markets,” JB Mackenzie, the managing director of TD Ameritrade Asia, said in an interview with CNBC Monday.

WeChat has more than 1 billion monthly active users, according to Tencent. Known in China as Weixin, the mobile app is also used by many overseas Chinese and foreigners. It has evolved from recorded voice messages to a means of paying for store purchases and utility bills. Users can also access third-party services such as SF Express — a delivery company similar to FedEx — through “mini programs” that live within the WeChat app.

TD Ameritrade’s portal will be a mini program. The company says users can access market data, investor education materials, account balance information and agent chat services. The bulk of WeChat’s users are in mainland China and TD Ameritrade would likely need to work to generate awareness of the mini program for U.S. users.

“WeChat has been expanding its offering globally, and we are very excited that TD Ameritrade is using WeChat to bring our unrivaled convenience and accessibility to its customers,” Juliet Zhu, general manager and head of WeChat Marketing at Tencent, said in a release.

TD Ameritrade’s push to work with a leading Chinese brand comes as Beijing has stepped up its efforts this year to make good on years-long promises to open up its financial markets to foreign players.

This past Friday, UBS received approval to become the first foreign bank to increase its stake in a Chinese securities joint venture to a majority 51 percent. The news followed an announcement a few days earlier that German insurer Allianz could establish a wholly-owned unit in mainland China. In early November, American Express received preparatory approval from the People’s Bank of China for a clearing and settlement license in mainland China, where the company has formed a joint venture with Chinese fintech (financial technology) company LianLian.

“(In the) past six months there’s an increasing appetite from the (multinational corporations) to double down and increase their presence in China. That of course was triggered by new regulation (for allowing majority stakes),” Cliff Sheng, financial services partner at consulting firm Oliver Wyman, said in a phone interview Monday.

Sheng noted the ability of foreign financial firms to succeed in China depends on how much they can commit to localizing their services. “This is the primary concern for the foreign players on top of getting the license,” he said.

In this case, TD Ameritrade is working with one of the leaders in China’s rapidly developing fintech sector. WeChat’s mobile pay function vies with Alibaba-affiliate Alipay as one of the primary means of payment in mainland China today, and parent company Tencent is behind the country’s first digital bank, WeBank.

“I think there are some amazing ideas ready to burst out of this scene,” Mackenzie said. “What you have are innovations from all parts of this world that are working to bring these ideas to customers, and that’s an exciting opportunity to us.”

The Chinese head of one of the world’s most iconic brands has doled out some advice to President Donald Trump on defusing his trade spat with President Xi Jinping: Make like Chinese businessmen and exchange WeChat accounts. Coca-Cola’s president for Greater China and Korea, Curtis Ferguson, said Wednesday that Trump should adapt his leadership style more to the Chinese model and use the messaging app to initiate talks on ending the dispute. “As all business is done in China, I’d probably suggest

The Chinese head of one of the world’s most iconic brands has doled out some advice to President Donald Trump on defusing his trade spat with President Xi Jinping: Make like Chinese businessmen and exchange WeChat accounts.

Coca-Cola’s president for Greater China and Korea, Curtis Ferguson, said Wednesday that Trump should adapt his leadership style more to the Chinese model and use the messaging app to initiate talks on ending the dispute.

“As all business is done in China, I’d probably suggest they exchange WeChat accounts and get on with this thing,” Curtis Ferguson told CNBC’s Akiko Fujita and Martin Soong at the World Economic Forum in Tianjin, China.

Trump said Monday that he would be open to direct discussions with the Chinese Premier, whom he “respects,” while simultaneously announcing new tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports. Beijing retaliated in short order, slapping duties on $60 billion worth of American goods.

Those hikes spell bad news for all businesses, Ferguson said. Though he said the soft drink maker has not yet felt a direct effect from the levies, apart from in rising commodity prices.

He also said he hopes the company will be spared from anticipated boycotts of U.S. products by Chinese consumers, as it is increasingly seen as a “local brand.”

The partnership will create a “new lifestyle of ‘smart retail’ through tie-up on user traffic, technology exploration, application scenarios and management abilities,” said Lei Maofeng, deputy general manager of Tencent’s payment platform WeChat Pay, the SCMP reported. Tencent did not respond to CNBC’s multiple requests for comment. The announcement comes just a month after rivals Alibaba confirmed that its food delivery arm, Ele.me, has teamed up with Starbucks to deliver coffee and snacks to C

The announcement comes just a month after rivals Alibaba confirmed that its food delivery arm, Ele.me, has teamed up with Starbucks to deliver coffee and snacks to Chinese consumers starting in fall in Beijing and Shanghai. Before the end of the calendar year, the partnership will broaden delivery to 2,000 stores in 30 cities, according to Starbucks President and CEO Kevin Johnson.

While Beijing supports the development of the underlying blockchain technology, it is still trying to limit speculation in digital currencies roughly one year since banning their sales in “initial coin offerings.” Blockchain technology creates a secure, basically permanent record of transactions between two parties, eliminating the need for a third-party intermediary such as a bank. China used to dominate bitcoin trading, and still accounts for a majority of bitcoin creation through the “mining”

Chinese authorities have stepped up their pressure on domestic cryptocurrency activity in the last few weeks.

While Beijing supports the development of the underlying blockchain technology, it is still trying to limit speculation in digital currencies roughly one year since banning their sales in “initial coin offerings.”

Blockchain technology creates a secure, basically permanent record of transactions between two parties, eliminating the need for a third-party intermediary such as a bank. Bitcoin is the first application of the technology, and hundreds of other cryptocurrencies have since emerged. Their prices skyrocketed last year as investors bet blockchain could transform the world as much as the internet did. While major companies and governments — including China’s — are testing the technology, it has yet to prove itself on a large scale.

China used to dominate bitcoin trading, and still accounts for a majority of bitcoin creation through the “mining” process. But increased regulatory scrutiny, especially as bitcoin’s price climbed, culminated in the country’s central bank and other financial authorities prohibiting sales of new cryptocurrencies through so-called ICOs early last September. Beijing also effectively banned domestic bitcoin-yuan trading.

At the same time, Japanese, South Korean and U.S. investors became increasingly interested in bitcoin, which hit an all-time high above $19,000 in December. Chinese blockchain projects sometimes moved their listed headquarters overseas, while development continued within mainland China. Trading among cryptocurrencies is still possible, while bitcoin can be bought with yuan through over-the-counter markets.

The persistent speculation has not gone unnoticed.

On Aug. 24, five government bodies — the People’s Bank of China, the Banking Regulatory Commission, the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission, the Ministry of Public Security and the State Administration for Market Regulation — issued a warning about risks from illegal fundraising under the guise of “blockchain” and “cryptocurrencies.” The announcement also called out those who used overseas servers while targeting Chinese investors.

On the same day, tech giant Tencent announced it will prohibit cryptocurrency-related transactions through WeChat pay, the mobile payments function of its popular Chinese messaging app. Tencent has also blocked some official WeChat accounts that allegedly published information relating to initial coin offerings and cryptocurrency trading that violated government policy on instant messaging services, the company said in a statement to CNBC. Official WeChat accounts share articles and news updates with subscribers for free. Caixin first reported the block on Aug. 22.

As China’s “MeToo” movement gathers steam, individuals and media platforms are pushing at the boundaries of what is allowed on the country’s tightly controlled internet by finding ways around censorship to allow activists to mobilize support. Media platforms have also risked censorship to capture popular attention focused on China’s sexual harassment allegations. “In less than 24 hours, we have received over 1,700 stories of sexual harassment,” read their headline. China’s top blogging platform,

As China’s “MeToo” movement gathers steam, individuals and media platforms are pushing at the boundaries of what is allowed on the country’s tightly controlled internet by finding ways around censorship to allow activists to mobilize support.

Over the past two weeks, dozens of people have taken to China’s Twitter-like platform, Weibo, to publish stories of sexual harassment by Beijing’s top literati and leaders of non-government organizations. Although no prominent officials have yet been publicly accused, regulators have taken a cautious approach, as with all public incidents that can spark mass expressions of discontent.

Two monks published a 95-page document on July 1 accusing the president of China’s Buddhist Association, Shi Xuecheng, who is also the abbot of the famous Longquan monastery near Beijing, of sexual abuse. Within days the case had gained so much attention that “sexual abuse” became an auto-correct phrase suggested by the dominant search engine Baidu for searches on “Longquan monastery” — even though searches on the topic were blocked.

The abbot issued an official denial through a statement from the monastery, which said the allegations contained forged evidence and were false and malicious.

“The authorities have known from the beginning that the movement has shades of anti-authoritarianism, and they are afraid the allegations will spread to officials,” said Wu Qiang, a former Tsinghua University professor and commentator on social movements. “Private channels of communication can be explosive in spreading information quickly.”

The intermittent censorship of the MeToo hashtag and its variants on Weibo have led to many alternatives — most prominently “rice bunny”, which is pronounced “mi tu” in Mandarin. Users are now trying out the emoji for a bowl of rice and a rabbit, as well as various other homophones for “me too”, along with its translations into other languages. “Do you think you can censor all of us? Minority-language speakers, step up!” reads one post.

Last month, an anonymous intern posted on Weibo her account of being sexually assaulted by a state-television personality. The alleged perpetrator did not respond to a request for comment.

Although the intern’s post was quickly censored, many more accounts — including those with millions of followers — saved it through re-posting a screenshot of it.

While it is easy for computer algorithms to search text, it is slightly harder to search and identify what is being conveyed in images, especially if the re-posters add blemishes to the image or distort it by flipping it upside-down, for example.

“The government is allowing people to let off steam in a controlled way,” said Lotus Ruan, a research fellow at the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab, who has been tracking the allegations. However, “there is a limit on how far and how high up public discussions can go,” Ms. Ruan said, and any discussions of government officials were likely to be censored.

“It is issues like MeToo that make things difficult for the authorities,” said Charlie Smith of GreatFire.org, a censorship-monitoring group. “Regardless of the subject matter, once a threshold [of social media activity] is crossed, automatic censorship kicks in . . . but they really run a risk of pissing people off,” Mr. Smith added, pointing to past instances of censorship that “dumbfounded and angered” Chinese people.

In the past, authorities have also backtracked after seeing an upswell of anger at the censorship — but this is a difficult balance, Mr. Smith argued, adding: “At some point, the authorities are going to miscalculate and one of these issues will gain momentum.”

Media platforms have also risked censorship to capture popular attention focused on China’s sexual harassment allegations. Meiri Renwu — which translates as “People of the Day” — one of a crop of media start-ups whose investigations get over 100,000 reads each, used its public WeChat account to solicit stories of sexual harassment from readers. “In less than 24 hours, we have received over 1,700 stories of sexual harassment,” read their headline. The article was censored not long after publication.

China’s top blogging platform, Douban, pushed a notification to some users saying “MeToo: speak out your stories, oppose sexual harassment”. Within a day, MeToo remained on the list of trending topics but was labelled “currently being investigated”, and soon related posts could no longer be searched.

“The cost of being censored is not too high, and on the contrary, running a MeToo story, which is an issue that people care about deeply, is good for boosting viewership and branding for the account,” said a media professional at a major Chinese internet platform who wished to remain anonymous. The person added that “self-published” media platforms such as Meiri Renwu can break sensitive stories more easily as they receive less scrutiny compared with state-owned or large private media groups.

Although one sensitive story might not hurt, there have been a wave of permanent closures of WeChat public accounts in recent months, including the well-known Feminist Voices account. In July, a local bureau of the Cyberspace Administration of China announced that 720,000 accounts had been closed down by internet platforms in the second quarter of the year.

Meanwhile, feminist groups have been organizing meetings and next steps via China’s ubiquitous social-media app WeChat. In a group that was set up shortly after accusations of sexual harassment against professors emerged in January, more than 200 activists had joined within a few days.

“Don’t forget to take screenshots,” is one guideline in a WeChat messaging group of feminist activists, while members often remind others to “post the screenshots as well as the links” — censorship happens so quickly that an article is likely to be taken down in the course of a conversation about the article, stumping those who arrived late.

“WeChat is a double-edged sword,” said prominent political dissident Hu Jia, explaining it allows people — and political movements — to organize quickly, but also lets officials keep track of them. WeChat conversation data passes through Tencent’s servers in unencrypted form, allowing censorship algorithms to scour their content.

After a weekend filled with heated WeChat discussions, the organizer of one such group suggested participants download an encrypted messaging app instead.

WeChat Pay allows users to show stores a barcode on their smartphone via the Tencent-owned WeChat messaging app. WeChat has over 1 billion users and around 800 million of them use the WeChat Pay function. And Tencent is gearing up to announce that many more stores in the U.S. will accept WeChat Pay later this year. “Actually now … in the airport and in some duty free shops, they already accept WeChat Pay … because (the) U.S. is a really big country and has a lot of merchants. Last year, Tencen

Tencent will step up its efforts to expand its payment service WeChat Pay to the U.S., an executive at the Chinese technology giant told CNBC, hinting at more merchants coming on board later this year.

WeChat Pay allows users to show stores a barcode on their smartphone via the Tencent-owned WeChat messaging app. The shop scans the barcode, allowing a user to pay for an item or service with a Chinese bank account. WeChat has over 1 billion users and around 800 million of them use the WeChat Pay function.

Tencent has focused on expanding the payments service abroad, but it has stopped short of trying to create a local version of WeChat for other countries. Instead, the company has been focused on signing up merchants in many countries to accept WeChat Pay so Chinese tourists can use the payments platform abroad.

And Tencent is gearing up to announce that many more stores in the U.S. will accept WeChat Pay later this year.

“(The) U.S. is also a market we are focused on now … after July you will see a lot of merchants will accept WeChat Pay in U.S.,” Yin Jie, director of cross-border operation at WeChat Pay, told CNBC in an interview that aired on TV on Thursday.

“Actually now … in the airport and in some duty free shops, they already accept WeChat Pay … because (the) U.S. is a really big country and has a lot of merchants. We need to do it step by step,” she said.

Last year, Tencent partnered with Citcon, a mobile payments platform based in the U.S., to bring WeChat Pay to North America. But so far, there haven’t been many major stores accepting the service.

Alphabet’s Google said on Wednesday it has launched an artificial intelligence (AI) game on Tencent social media app WeChat, as the company continues to show tentative signs of re-entering China’s consumer market. Last year, Google launched its ‘Google Translate’ app in China, and in May it added a file management app to several app stores run by local Chinese firms, a first for the company. The latest product, Caihua Xiaoge, is a drawing game based on Google’s AI image recognition technology, a

Alphabet’s Google said on Wednesday it has launched an artificial intelligence (AI) game on Tencent social media app WeChat, as the company continues to show tentative signs of re-entering China’s consumer market.

The U.S. technology firm has been experimenting with new inroads to China, where the majority of it products including its internet search engine, email and app store are blocked by Chinese authorities over censorship concerns.

Last year, Google launched its ‘Google Translate’ app in China, and in May it added a file management app to several app stores run by local Chinese firms, a first for the company.

The latest product, Caihua Xiaoge, is a drawing game based on Google’s AI image recognition technology, and is a WeChat ‘mini app’, which works only within Tencent’s WeChat. Several foreign firms, including Starbucks Corp, have also launched mini apps.

Google in January announced a patent licensing deal with Tencent with the intention of collaborating further in the Chinese market. Last month, the U.S. firm also invested $550 million in JD.com, China’s second most valuable e-commerce firm which also counts Tencent as an investor.

While it is unlikely Google will be able to open its global search engine in China, the firm is experimenting with less controversial projects in the market. In January it participated in a $120 million investment round by live-stream mobile game platform Chushou.

JD.com competes with Jack Ma’s Alibaba in China’s massive e-commerce market. While Alibaba added a media business and a successful cloud business to augment its growth, Luria said JD.com was more of a “pure retailer.” As a result of the partnership, JD.com is able to sell directly to consumers through Tencent’s WeChat app. Luria explained that it made sense for JD.com to invest in its business since there’s still a very large opportunity in China. He added that JD.com planned to reduce the compa

JD.com competes with Jack Ma’s Alibaba in China’s massive e-commerce market. Both companies have invested significantly in technology, retail and logistics to win over consumers. Those include opening high-tech supermarkets and testing drone delivery to reach China’s rural consumers.

Gil Luria, director of research at D.A. Davidson & Co told CNBC’s “The Rundown” on Monday that both companies are important to watch. While Alibaba added a media business and a successful cloud business to augment its growth, Luria said JD.com was more of a “pure retailer.”

“They’re singularly focused on being a fantastic retailer,” he said. “They have the advantage on logistics, they have the advantage on quality and they have the alignment with Tencent, which is incredibly important because of the relationship with WeChat.”

Tencent is one of China’s major technology giants and its businesses include messaging platform WeChat, which is used extensively internationally and in China, where it is known as Weixin. In March, the company revealed that WeChat hit one billion monthly users for the first time.

As a result of the partnership, JD.com is able to sell directly to consumers through Tencent’s WeChat app.

Moreover, Tencent and JD.com have also teamed up to challenge Alibaba’s stronghold in the e-commerce space. Last year, the two firms reportedly said they would pay $863 million for a 12.5 percent stake in Vipshop Holdings, which sells discounted fashion and accessories from global brands.

Luria explained that it made sense for JD.com to invest in its business since there’s still a very large opportunity in China. In fact, he added, if JD.com did not invest in new technologies and important tools, they would not be able to catch up or compete with Alibaba.

“You have to prepare for your future growth at least three, or even five, years earlier,” Liu told CNBC. “For JD, most important to us is, you know, our supply chain service based on our logistics system. And second is technology.”

He added that JD.com planned to reduce the comparatively high logistics costs in China. But across the Pacific, both Alibaba and JD.com’s attempts to make in-roads into the U.S. have been slow.

China’s top social media app WeChat has removed “sugar daddy” dating website SeekingArrangement from its platform, after a recent surge in the popularity of the U.S.-founded service attracted scrutiny from state media. A money-for-love dating platform, launched in the United States in 2006, SeekingArrangement puts young women in touch with rich older men. As of Wednesday, it was the top most downloaded free social networking app for iOS users in China, surpassing even Tencent’s WeChat, analytics

China’s top social media app WeChat has removed “sugar daddy” dating website SeekingArrangement from its platform, after a recent surge in the popularity of the U.S.-founded service attracted scrutiny from state media.

A money-for-love dating platform, launched in the United States in 2006, SeekingArrangement puts young women in touch with rich older men. “At SA, we pride ourselves on helping you find the ultimate generous Sugar Daddy. Bills paid, gifts galore, and top-shelf fun,” it says on its U.S. website.

As of Wednesday, it was the top most downloaded free social networking app for iOS users in China, surpassing even Tencent’s WeChat, analytics firm App Annie said.

SeekingArrangement’s public account on WeChat disappeared this week amid the rising popularity that has spurred comparisons of the app to prostitution in China.

State media outlet Global Times has said that authorities in Shanghai were investigating the app’s local operations.

WeChat, which has about 1 billion monthly active users, is a popular portal for online services in China and the removal cuts off a major user-acquisition channel for SeekingArrangement.

Tencent and SeekingArrangement in China did not respond to a request for comment.

The move highlights the mounting censorship and regulatory pressure on social media websites in China to create wholesome online communities and crack down on content that is explicit or runs counter to the Communist Party line.

While renting another person’s services through an app is not unusual in China, such as hiring gym buddies or language teachers, romantic services have posed a challenge with services similar to SeekingArrangement drawing fire from regulators and users over inappropriate features.

Popular foreign dating apps, including Tinder, are banned in China, alongside social networking websites Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

However, SeekingArrangement’s app was still available in Chinese app stores on Friday.

Its Chinese-language website displayed a disclaimer: “despite misleading partial media reports, the SA Chinese version …. is a high quality space for high quality people.”